HIGH-PRESSURE MODIFICATION OF RBAUTE

NaAuTe and KAuTe crystallize with a layer structure in which the gold and tellurium atoms form planar hexagonal nets with the mutual coordin ation number 3. RbAuTe and CsAuTe, on the other hand, have chain struc tures. The gold atoms are linearly coordinated by tellurium atoms so t hat a coordination number of only 2 results. From consideration of the cell volumes we expected that there should exist a high pressure modi fication of RbAuTe with an atomic arrangement isotypic to that of KAuT e. We report on the experimental proof of this assumption as well as s tructural relationships among the AAuTe phases.